Grandmothers to defend scions of Singh brothers in court

The children of former Ranbaxy promoters, Malvinder and Shivinder Singh will be represented by their maternal grandmothers at the Delhi High Court in Daiichi Sankyo’s ongoing arbitration execution case against themNEW DELHI: The children of former Ranbaxy promoters Malvinder and Shivinder Singh will be represented by their maternal grandmothers at the Delhi High Court in Daiichi Sankyo’s ongoing arbitration execution case against them. Daiichi Sankyo is in the court to recover to recover Rs 2,562 crore ordered by a Singapore arbitration court in consequential damages to the Japanese firm earlier this year.

The Japanese firm claimed that shares of Ranbaxy were also held by the children of the former promoters and so they needed to appoint guardians. One of Malvinder Singh’s daughters and all four of Shivinder Singh’s sons are respondents in the case as they were also among the sellers of Ranbaxy stakes to Daiichi, according to a person aware of the development.

According to the person, the case is one of joint and several liability, meaning that Daiichi could recover all the damages from any one of the respondents regardless of their individual share of the liability.

Daiichi Sankyo had earlier filed an application for a guardian ad litem as, under Indian law, a minor cannot be sued directly. Sunit Singh and Rajshree Singh will now be the guardians for the children in the case, which is to be heard by Justice S Muralidhar next on November 28.

“(The respondents) had requested that the children be represented by a guardian, as they are minors,” another source aware of the developments told ET on the condition of anonymity.

The high court has also directed all respondents who have not filed their list of assets in a particular format so far to do so by November 21, the source added.

An RHC Holding spokesperson told ET: “All court orders have been complied with. Certain procedural formats for details of assets filed have been directed, which will be completed by the date prescribed. The matter is sub-justice and we cannot offer further comments.”

The Singh brothers were accused of concealing information regarding wrongdoing at Ranbaxy when they sold a majority stake in it to Daiichi in 2008. The Japanese firm eventually had to reach a $500-million settlement with the US Department of Justice in 2013 over allegations that Ranbaxy had falsified data.

The Singapore tribunal had awarded the Japanese firm the damages through a 2-1 majority order, with Justice AM Ahmadi—former chief justice of India—giving the dissenting opinion and dismissing all of Daiichi’s claims.

The brothers are currently contesting the penalty and have appealed against the order in Singapore as well. According to the counsel for the brothers, “substantive objections” exist under India’s arbitration law to make the law unenforceable here.

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